Foster parents Elizabeth (l) and Kate Dumbaugh stand on either side of their friend Katherine Mullins, whose son Aiden was recently in the Dumbaughs' care while she recovered from her heroin addiction.

Are you interested in becoming a foster parent? If you live in Sarasota, Manatee or De Soto counties, click here to learn how the process works. Click here if you live in Hillsborough, Pinellas or Pasco counties.

Would you like to volunteer as a Guardian Ad Litem? Call 813-272-5110, or if you are not a Hillsborough County resident, visit the statewide website to find your circuit and get involved.

If you have any concerns about potential abuse in your family or neighborhood, visit the Florida Department of Children and Families website or call the Abuse Hotline 1-800-962-2872.

Related Content

As Health News Florida reported last week, the opioid crisis in Manatee and Sarasota Counties is putting a strain on their foster care system. But the situation isn't entirely bleak. Now we'll hear from one mother whose relationship with her son's foster parents helped her reunify her family and overcome her addiction.

Manatee and Sarasota Counties have seen overdose deaths from drugs like heroin, fentanyl and carfentanil spike in the past few years. At the same time, the number of children being removed from their homes and placed into the area’s foster care system has skyrocketed. There’s a connection between the increases.

A preliminary hearing was held Thursday in the case of Naika Venant, the 14-year-old girl who broadcast her suicide on Facebook Live from her Miami Gardens foster home earlier this year. It was the second suicide of a teenager in foster care overseen by the agency Our Kids in less than 60 days.